One million visitors or moreWith 96 entries and seemingly many more that could be added (including various ways to tally visitor #'s), I wonder if the criteria should be altered/strengthened?
For example, serial sites that tally over 1 million, should that count? As shown in this article, the
Joseon Royal Tombs (18 clusters) easily surpasses 1 million visitors collectively each year. In fact these clusters alone equal 1.45 million visitors in 2019. But are the tombs actually busy? Not really, therefore the usefulness of this information is limited (hence trivia category). However, reimagining this connection as a guide for planning, that these sites are the busiest on the planet
(based on density, size, singular monument, cultural or natural site, and/or serial components) may be more fruitful.
Yeongneung and Nyeongneung Royal Tombs in Yeoju (413,000 visitors)
Seolleung and Jeongneung Royal Tombs in Seoul (382,000)
Royal Tombs in Goyang (333,000)
Yungneung and Geolleung Royal Tombs in Hwaseong (327,000)
Changing the Name: Most Visited WHS?
Part of the original criteria included:
- excluding those without entry regulations eg. cities)
Potential updated Criteria- Different # of visitor requirement for cultural, natural, and serial WHS
- Data collection total visitors per WHS as main data (heavily frequented individual components as add-on info)
- Seasonal information regarding natural sites could be included
- Unrelated site visitor #'s not included. for example "Anne Frank House" is not related to the Amsterdam's inscription on the world heritage list
- How valuable is museum information within an urban centre's inscribed zone?
WHS that may not meet the original criteria (without entry regulations)
- Par force hunting landscape (7.854 million in 2003)
*these are essentially public parks, with only one exception- San Antonio Missions (Alamo: roughly 2 million)
*the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is free and access is both on foot or bike, with almost no restrictions- Great Smoky Mountains (Over 11 million)
*The park is free and is traversed by US 441San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Hosted 1.14 Million Visitors in 2020 - sure the Alamo does get busy, but that is 1 of 6 components included.
I am simply throwing out some ideas, because I think this connection has become kind of meaningless because there really is no criteria besides 1 million. Using a one size fits all approach to WHS that are single buildings, dozens of components, or massive nature reserves does not make much sense. Maybe there is a better way that provides more useful information?